Tyler Reddick‘s perfect start to the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season was undone by Ryan Blaney in Phoenix last weekend. Having taken three back-to-back victories in the first three races, Reddick seemed unstoppable until the driver from Team Penske pulled up. Now, forgetting the Phoenix outing, he is all set for the Las Vegas race, but with caution.

Tyler Reddick unravels 23XI Racing’s weakness

In a recent interview with Frontstretch, Tyler Reddick shed light on the weaknesses he could face on Sunday. Recalling the incident from last year’s fall race, where he faced a handling issue with his 23XI Racing Toyota, the #45 driver said:

“I think like spring in Vegas last year [we] had speed. We didn’t have the handling we wanted. Really, the only mile and a half we really struggled with last year was campus one. That was really a big head scratcher for us.”

In Motorsport, perfect handling of a car is regarded as an extremely important setup needed to win races. A slight mismatch in handling can hinder a driver’s maneuverability and ruin the entire race.

Following this, Reddick discussed how they fell behind their competitors because a bad start to the day cost them the race. Speaking about this, here’s what he further added:

“So aside from that one race, it seemed like a mile-and-a-half program had been pretty close to where we expected to be. So yeah, for us, on our last trip here, we thought we were very solid. We just didn’t have the best last race start in that race.”

Notably, Tyler Reddick qualified in eighth place in the 2025 South Point 400, just behind his teammate, Bubba Wallace. He remained at the same position in stage 1 but improved significantly in stage 2 and moved up to second place.

However, he fell back three places in the final stage and came home in fifth place, ahead of Joey Logano and behind Chase Briscoe. Denny Hamlin won the race ahead of Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell.

As Reddick shared, he faced difficulties while driving his Toyota last year, as 23XI Racing’s hidden vulnerability haunted him throughout the 2025 season. Not only did he fail to win a race, but he also had to swallow an early exit from the playoffs.

As things stand, Reddick and 23XI Racing seem to have worked on their weak spot from last year. This might have resulted in three back-to-back wins at Daytona, Atlanta, and COTA. With Phoenix as an odd one out, all eyes will be on Las Vegas this week, where Reddick needs to look out for Christopher Bell.

Christopher Bell’s challenge awaits Tyler Reddick at Las Vegas

Christopher Bell has claimed the pole for the Pennzoil 400 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the first of the two races this season. Having won three back-to-back races last season, Bell has yet to win one so far, and at Las Vegas, he would be more than willing to take home one.

“I’ve talked about this a lot through the last couple of races, but I’m just super, super proud of my team,” Bell told the media after claiming the pole. “We’re finally getting back to where we need to be, and it feels good. We used to be able to qualify really well on these intermediates, and then, I don’t know, it feels like we fell a little bit off, and now we got it back. My engineers, my crew chief, my mechanics, my pit crew—everybody has been doing such a good job in 2026. It’s so fun to drive this #20 car, and I’m excited about tomorrow.”

While Bell has yet to win a race at this track, he comes with a record of strong finishes around here: two runner-up and one third-place finish. Besides him, Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin, the winners of the last two editions here, will also be favorites for the win.

With that said, it will be interesting to see if Tyler Reddick can claim four wins or Ryan Blaney can pick up a second consecutive victory. If not, will it be Bell, Hamlin, or Larson? Only time will tell.